Please note that this course is fully booked. Please email sme-office@esa.int in case you would like to be added to the waiting list.

This training course will take place on 24-25 November 2022 at ESA/ESTEC (Noordwijk, The Netherlands). It is an on-site course, remote participation will not be possible.

Product Assurance (PA) is the discipline devoted to the study, planning and implementation of activities intended to assure that the design, controls, methods and techniques in a project result in a satisfactory degree of quality in a product.

This 2-day PA course will provide participants with an overview of the Product Assurance tasks to be performed throughout a project. It introduces how Product Assurance is implemented in ESA projects and provides practical examples on how PA is involved in projects. The course focuses on hardware-related aspects. Software is dealt with in a separate course available via the Learning Hub.

Presentations on day 1 provide a generic overview of Product Assurance tasks and introduce the different PA disciplines in ESA projects. The topics of Dependability and Safety are discussed in this part as well as EEE components and radiation effects on EEE.

Day 2 focuses on the topics of Materials and Processes as well as Electronics assemblies, including PCBs and soldering processes.

Tours of some ESTEC laboratories are foreseen on both days.

Target group

This course is of particular interest to participants from Small and Medium-sized Enterprises who have limited knowledge of PA activities in the space sector. It is targeted at participants working for SMEs in ESA Member States, Associate States or Collaborating States who are providing or are intending to provide products for space.

A maximum of 2 participants per company can be admitted. There are 30 seats available. Preference will be given to participants from Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. Please provide your esa-star entity code upon registration if available.

The session is intended to be an introduction to Product Assurance activities and standards in ESA projects for companies which are not yet familiar with them. Participants will acquire a basic knowledge of various relevant PA topics.

The course is free of charge. Participants are expected to cover their own travel, meal and accomodation costs.

Agenda Day 1

• Welcome
• General Product Assurance (J. Hall)
  • PA/QA in an ESA project
  • PA tasks during project
  • PA disciplines
• Dependability and Safety (F. Cosson)
  • Introduction to Dependability, Reliability, and Maintainability
  • Dependability Requirements and Process
  • Introduction to Safety (objectives, scope)
  • Safety Requirements and Analyses
• Lunch
• EEE Components (L. Bonora)
• Radiation Hardness Assurance (M. Poizat & V. Gupta)
• Presentation on REACH (P. Janik)

Agenda Day 2

• Materials and Processes - 1 (A. Graham)
• Materials and space environmental effects (J. Eck)
• Cleanliness and contamination control (J. Eck)
• Lunch
• Electronics assemblies, printed circuit boards (PCB) - 1 (S. Heltzel)
• Electronics assemblies, soldering processes - 2 (G. Corocher)
• Visit to EEE lab and M&P lab

(draft agenda subject to change)

Please inform the organisers at your earliest convenience if you cannot take part in the course by sending an email to: sme-office@esa.int

No-shows on the day will be excluded from future courses and events. ESA takes no responsibility for any required event changes or modifications due to Covid-19.

This training course may be recorded for e-learning purposes.